


lay beside this mess and call it consequence

by Glassea



Series: metal arms + freezer burn [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Endgame, Talking, literally just talking, probably because dc/marvel is the crossover from hell, seriously how has no one written these two together yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-22 22:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6096580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glassea/pseuds/Glassea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Bucky Barnes and Roy Harper 1.0 succumb to Captain America's Disappointed Frown and end up talking about their feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	lay beside this mess and call it consequence

**Author's Note:**

> the first couple of paragraphs have been bouncing around in the back of my head for over a year now, jesus. (all that time and this is the best I can come up with. oops.)
> 
> this was originally meant to be crack but then it developed introspection. now it's just a mess. these two have so many issues, I can't even.

"He's still watching."

It's not a question, but Roy leans three inches to the right anyways, and nods. "Yep."

Captain America hastily retreats around the corner.

"Gone, now," Roy reports, though he's sure that Barnes knows that already. Supersoldier senses and PTSD-heightened awareness and all.

There's a tense, awkward pause. Roy'd thought that Winter Soldier would be, you know. Less socially incompetent.

He's been wrong before, that's for sure.

Roy clears his throat, pulls his paper cup a little closer, looks around the coffeehouse they'd agreed to meet in. Or, more accurately, the coffeehouse that Red Arrow and Captain America had conspired to lure them to. Neither one of them wants to be here. It's only the threat of Ollie coming down on his head - and Roy really doesn't want to deal with his old mentor right now - that's keeping him here. That's it. That's definitely, one hundred percent the only reason he's staying.

It has nothing to do with Cap's Disappointed Frown, the one that Roy only caught the tail end of when Cap was talking to Barnes before the meeting. The one that made Roy want to go save some puppies and end all injustice in the world. The one that would definitely end up directed at Roy if he bailed. Nope. That is not keeping Roy here at all.

At least he's not alone. Roy suspects that the Frown has a similar effect on the Soldier, so. Yeah.

Here they are, because Captain America can guilt trip better than a small child, and that's kind of a problem.

"Nice arm," Roy says after a while.

"Thanks." Barnes may be socially incompetent, but he has deadpan snarker down. Or. Well. Roy's, like, sixty percent sure that's snark. "Yours too." 

And oh, yeah, that's definitely snark. Roy's spent too much time around sarcastic assholes to miss that. He allows himself a grin as he carefully sips his coffee.

Seven minutes pass.

Barnes isn't even drinking his coffee, for Christ's sake. Just sitting and staring at Roy, unblinking. If Roy didn't know better, if he himself had never fallen into a sniper's thousand-yard stare of the target and you and nothing else, he'd be seriously worried for the health of Barnes' eyes. As it is, he's just really creeped out.

Three minutes later, Roy finishes his coffee. Barnes takes his first sip. Captain America peers around the corner again and ducks back immediately when he sees Roy looking.

"Okay, look," Roy gives in after eternities of uncomfortable silence, "I brought up the arm thing, which is a perfectly good opening. Conversation's on you now."

Barnes just kind of _looks_ at him. Roy stares right back. He ignores the voice in the back of his head that is telling him to run the fuck away, predator alert, survival instinct, blah blah blah. Suicidal, maybe, but seriously? He got dragged here by his clone and if he had to suffer that indignity he wants something to show for it, thanks.

"Interaction is. Hard, sometimes." The words come as a surprise to Roy, even though he's looking right at the Soldier. It's just that the Soldier isn't looking at him anymore. Barnes has this far-off stare. It's not the narrow focus of a sniper, but one that says he's not all there. Some part of him is stuck in the past. "I could... Act it, of course. But they tell me I don't have to. They keep telling me to do what I want. They want me to act as. Myself? But." Barnes shrugs the metal shoulder, focuses on Roy once more, sips at his coffee again.

And Roy can't quite find the words, but -

"I came out angry," Roy says eventually. He'd - he'd been angry before, of course. But it's so easy to let the anger consume. "Simpler to make yourself one thing. You know how to act. No collateral, emotionally."

Though that's not true, is it? There's always emotional collateral. That kind's the worst. 

Barnes nods anyways. "I ask how I used to be, sometimes. He won't tell me. Says I need to find whatever - whoever - I am now. I just need something to build on. And the Soldier. It's."

"Not a good foundation?" Roy gets that, gets it a lot. Anger is a fragile thing. More breakable than you'd expect. "Yeah. I can see that."

Barnes hums, drinking from the coffee cup again.

The guy is even silent when he swallows. Jesus. They've just had what's essentially a heart-to-heart, but Roy's still kind of terrified of him. Or, you know, a lot terrified. He tries not to watch Barnes with apprehension and pretty much fails.

"If I wanted to attack you," Barnes tells him, "You wouldn't see it coming." As an afterthought, he adds on, "You wouldn't be able to do anything about it, anyways."

Roy feels so reassured. Not. "I'm just gonna." He points to the trash can, gets up to throw away his cup.

But as he moves past Barnes, very carefully not looking at the man, he feels pressure on the arm. When he looks down - 

Barnes is gripping Roy's prosthetic with his own metal hand. Roy can't help but stare at it for a second. It's a bit surreal. He doesn't pull away, just watches Barnes inspect his arm.

"This is a laser."

"What?"

"You have a laser on your arm." If Barnes weren't the Winter Soldier, Roy would say he was pouting. But he is the Winter Soldier, so Barnes is not pouting. He's just making an expression that's very, very close. "I want a laser on my arm."

"What."

"Where'd you get this?" Barnes pokes at Roy's arm with his flesh hand, eyes narrowed.

And. Well.

Roy'd thought that Barnes knew more about his situation. Because, you know, Russian assassin and all. But apparently he doesn't.

"Luthor gave it to me." Roy ignores the way the paper cup in his flesh hand crumples slightly under the force of his grip. "Appropriate, I guess, seeing as he's the one who took it in the first place. Bastard."

"Same," Barnes says. He doesn't release Roy's arm, but Roy finds it comforting, somehow. Roy's been getting acclimated to assassins, and he finds that a little bit disturbing. (He blames Cheshire.)

"Same?" Roy asks. "Yours is Luthor's too?" Because that would be one hell of a thing that Falcon forgot to mention.

"No." Barnes flexes his hand, letting go of Roy to watch the plates slide back and forth silently. "No, no. HYDRA. It's HYDRA. And they were the ones who had me."

A pause, where Roy doesn't dare move, and then Barnes speaks, so quiet that Roy doesn't know whether he was meant to hear it. "I hate it."

"I used to," Roy confesses. He still does, kind of. "But it's proof, you know? That I'm not his. That you're not theirs." That we can use their own weapons against them, he doesn't say.

Barnes looks like he's very far away. "I killed a lot of people with this."

This, Roy knows how to respond to. Falcon told him a little bit about Barnes when he cornered Roy outside the door. "Did you want to?"

"No."

And then Barnes laughs. It sounds rough and gravelly, like he hasn't laughed in a long time, but that makes it all the more real. Though Roy can't really figure out why Barnes is laughing, seeing as they were just discussing his history as an assassin.

"Sorry," Barnes says. "It's just. People keep telling me that. That it's not my fault. That I didn't want to do it. And I didn't believe them." He reaches out, taps Roy's arm. Metal tings off of metal. "But I believe you. And that's kind of funny. Because you're a teenager and I'm - not."

"I don't know whether I should be insulted or flattered by that. And I don't know whether I'm a teenager." Because cryo? Age? Whenever he tries to think about it, Roy's mind becomes a spiral of increasingly depressed question marks. He doesn't think about it often.

Barnes just grins. Roy only kind of wants to run for cover, so. Improvement! "I'm definitely older than you, no matter how you wanna look at it."

"Sure," Roy says, because he would like to walk out of here with all his vital organs intact. He heads for the trash can.

"I'll see you next week," Barnes calls.

"See you," Roy says before his brain fully catches up to his mouth. He stops right before Captain America's Hiding Corner. "Wait, what?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Red Arrow appears out of fucking _nowhere_ , grabs Roy by the bicep, and leads him around the corner towards the door. Sometimes Roy really hates that his clone is taller than him. "Falcon wants weekly appointments."

"What. No."

"Oh, yeah. This time next week."

As he's dragged past the skulking figure of Captain America, Roy begins to plot his revenge.

**Author's Note:**

> lowkey considering writing more of this crossover but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
